RIAA Says Ripping CDs to Your iPod is NOT Fair Use

[SUBMAN1]

Since we are stirring things up today, lets add the RIAA to the mix! :)

-S

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004409.php

RIAA Says Ripping CDs to Your iPod is NOT Fair Use
February 15, 2006
It is no secret that the entertainment oligopolists are not happy about space-shifting and format-shifting. But surely ripping your own CDs to your own iPod passes muster, right? In fact, didn't they admit as much in front of the Supreme Court during the MGM v. Grokster argument last year?

Apparently not.

As part of the on-going DMCA rule-making proceedings, the RIAA and other copyright industry associations submitted a filing that included this gem as part of their argument that space-shifting and format-shifting do not count as noninfringing uses, even when you are talking about making copies of your own CDs:

"Nor does the fact that permission to make a copy in particular circumstances is often or even routinely granted, necessarily establish that the copying is a fair use when the copyright owner withholds that authorization. In this regard, the statement attributed to counsel for copyright owners in the MGM v. Grokster case is simply a statement about authorization, not about fair use."
For those who may not remember, here's what Don Verrilli said to the Supreme Court last year:

"The record companies, my clients, have said, for some time now, and it's been on their website for some time now, that it's perfectly lawful to take a CD that you've purchased, upload it onto your computer, put it onto your iPod."
If I understand what the RIAA is saying, "perfectly lawful" means "lawful until we change our mind." So your ability to continue to make copies of your own CDs on your own iPod is entirely a matter of their sufferance. What about all the indie label CDs? Do you have to ask each of them for permission before ripping your CDs? And what about all the major label artists who control their own copyrights? Do we all need to ask them, as well?

P.S.: The same filing also had this to say: "Similarly, creating a back-up copy of a music CD is not a non-infringing use...."



Posted by Fred von Lohmann at 08:40 AM | Permalink | Technorati

[Godalmighty83]

then there were simply be much more piracy and probably a fall in sales, i dont listen to CD's i buy one convert to mp3's then store the disc somewhere never to be used again.

[STEED]

much more piracy

Bound to happen.

[SUBMAN1]

I think most CD sales drops are due to poor quality of content, and nothing to do with piracy. I have yet to hear something that I like on the net, and not bought the CD. The thought that piracy is to blame is just a brainwashing techique for the RIAA to try and regain the control it has lost.

My thoughts on compression in general:

The quality of the content to be freely downloaded on the net is subpar and hard to listen to, especially when you add in the artifacts created by the MP3 encoders. You can somewhat alleviate that is you use a better encoding engine like ogg, but even that is hard to listen to since ogg is tuned for file size over quality.

If you use a tuner on the ogg engine to make it near lossless, only then is it as good to me as the original CD, but no one on the net provides such tuned music for download, let alone only a handfull of people on this Earth even know the first step of making a near lossless ogg.

As for the true lossless engines such as FLAC, those are just to big to trade in at all.

The point is, you practically have to have the CD to have good quality anyway, and you should have it to make sure you have a good backup and that you also have the original documentation.

My purchasing patterns:

The net has totally increased my music spending personally, not decreased it as the RIAA would have you believe. For a while however, my music spending did decrease dramatically over the general disappointment at what is available in the typical music store, but only the net itself has turned that around. Can any of you imagine living without the net anymore??!!! If it weren't for the net, the music industry would get a flat $0 out of my pocket! They should be praising it since it allows for further promotion of the music itself automatically without spending a penny on pushing it via advetising or through radio stations!

Just my thoughts.

-S